Was this good news? It was pleasant to hear that Libkazaari didn’t like Lirinlalie, and yet… “House Monitor,” she said carefully, “I am concerned that, if Lirnilalie is being treated as royalty, if we reveal these papers here, there will be no pleasant result and a great deal of trouble.”

The door to Libkazaari’s door swung open. “There they are!” Ilonilarrona pointed triumphantly at the three of them. “I told you they were around here somewhere.”

“Yes, very good, you’ve managed to find three students in their House Monitor’s office. I’m sure that was quite difficult, Ilona.” Lirnilalie’s smiled sweetly at the governoras they stepped into Libkazaari’s office. “I’m sorry for the interruption, but we’ve been looking for some papers that were taken from my room, and when I described the students, Davenpor here thought that perhaps he knew the students in question. He said they had a good working relationship with you, House Monitor, and that they might be here if they weren’t in their room.”

“Their friend left me sitting in a closet,” Ilonilarrona complained. Despite the difficulty of their current situation, Enrie started to giggle. Ilonilarrona glared at her. “I don’t think you were ever in a closet kissing him at all.”

“Oh, I was. I’ve spent a lot of time in closets lately. But not all of it, that’s all.” Enrie tried not to laugh again. “It was nice of Gianci to help you try to find me, wasn’t it? He’s very considerate.”

Lirnilalie was staring at Ilonilarrona. “You were sitting. In a closet. In case a first-year student and her first-year boyfriend happened to wander by and decide that they were going to spend some time there.”

“Her boyfriend said she was expecting him there!”

“And you believed him? After you verbally berated the daughter of Diplomats – the girl who caught your own daughter cheating – in front of the whole school? Why in the name of the three and all the stars in the sky would you believe him?”

Enrie wasn’t sure if anyone else noticed Saydrie flinching when Lirnilalie invoked the Three, but she shifted between Lirnilalie and Saydrie just in case. This situation was already messy enough as it was.

“He’s a Bitrani!” Ilonilarrona was complaining. “They don’t have enough imagination to lie!”

Lirnilalie stared at Ilonilarrona for a heartbeat before she remembered they had company. “Pardon me, House Monitor. I did not realize what a mess we had on our hands.” She turned back to Ilonilarrona. “How did you ever get to be an Associate Governor?”

“What?” Ilonilarrona sneered. “You think those positions are given on merit?”

“Oh, shut up, before you make everything worse. House Monitor, my concern here is only that papers were stolen from my room. I see that you have some interesting papers in front of you; might I see what those are, to determine if they are what was stolen?”

“As this is this trio’s final project for the year,” Libkazaari answered levelly, “I think it’s unlikely they were stolen from your room. After all, Enerenarie would hardly cheat when she’s been so vocal against cheating.”

Maybe this is where we find out that each team is supposed to do a capstone project, pulling together everything they’ve learned during the year. They’ve inadvertently gotten quite the head start on that too. Possibly made a bunch of work that wouldn’t have otherwise existed for their classmates in the process, and changed the school’s curriculum in the process.

Why wouldn’t Lirnilalie rein in her pet idiot? She strikes me as ruthless, pragmatic and, quite a contrast to Lyona, capable and intelligent. So if Lyona has outlived her usefulness as Lirnilalie’s tool, I would imagine she’s more than willing not just to reign her in but to throw her to whatever wolves may be around, provided Lirnilalie believes that this would further her own agenda.